


charmed

by pricklyteeth



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Denial, Familiars, M/M, Pining, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:08:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pricklyteeth/pseuds/pricklyteeth
Summary: Kyungsoo is a solitary witch who is perfectly content practicing on his own and does not want a familiar. Taemin is a raven familiar that takes to Kyungsoo something terrible and follows him around unphased by Kyungsoo trying to shoo him.





	charmed

**Author's Note:**

> this is crossposted from shineexo round 1 ! 
> 
> i struggled so much with this fic.. it got posted before it was ready and so many people read it before it finally got changed, and it was just? very stressful haha. but i hope you enjoy anyway;;

 

Kyungsoo lets out a breath, blowing out the flame he just ignited at the end of his sage smudge, clearing the air around him before getting into some charmwork. 

 _It’s important to neutralize your workspace, especially when you’re trying to do magic that requires a lot of stability_ , Kyungsoo thinks to himself as he gently waves the smudge, the smoke continuing to billow from the burning end.

It was a nice day to practice, too. The sky was overcast, so he had plenty of light to work with. At the same time, it wasn’t dreadfully sunny or bright, so there weren’t too many nonmagic folk or their screaming progeny out and about.

Kyungsoo didn’t exactly  _hate_ them, but their playing wasn’t particularly conducive to productive sessions of practicing much of anything (except, perhaps, a few innocent hexes). Normally, he would have to practice at odd hours of the night, which he honestly preferred (the world was far more peaceful, and magic resonates particularly well at dawn). But today was a day off work, and time for casting and charmwork was rarely on his side.

Plus, the protection spells he had interlaced around his house were in dire need of renewing.  And besides, today was perfect, and it was wonderfully grey and perfectly silent.

 

For a moment, anyway.

A raven lands nearby, alighting on the wooden railing that surrounds the porch, made of a dark petrified wood that bends and twists, warped in the process of mineralization.

The raven almost looks like it belongs there.

Only, it’s Kyungsoo’s porch, and he’s currently in need of it, so he moves towards the bird, spellbook still in hand to try to shoo it away. It doesn’t leave, only cocking its head one way, eyes challenging him, unblinking.

Oh gods.

He moves to grab for it, hoping it’ll get the picture that it really is in danger, and it’s dealing with a witch who does indeed use raven feathers for potions, but the raven simply flies out of his grasp and lands on his forearm. Kyungsoo is flabbergasted, and also running out of patience. He waves his arm to get the bird off—which is honestly far too close to his person for his comfort, because these things are kind of huge and menacing—to no avail as the bird continues to stay clutched to his forearm.

Kyungsoo flicks his athame out of the pocket it shares in his sleeve with his wand, pointing the blade at the bird’s throat.

“Look. I don’t know what business you have with me, but I have a lot to do today; my wards are in need of rebuilding, among a number of other things, and I really don’t have time for this shit. You have two options. Leave, or become raven soup.”

The bird looks ominously into his eyes for a long moment before taking off.

Kyungsoo gets back to charmwork alright, but he can’t shake off the feeling that there was something familiar about the bird’s eyes.

 

A couple of days pass, and there isn’t one day where he doesn’t see the raven somewhere; peering down at him from a streetlight as he makes his way to work or otherwise perched on a branch outside the bookstore when he’s done working, in perfect view of the entrance.

It’s pretty creepy, but it doesn’t stop there.

The raven even starts following him  _into_ work, flustering Minseok and Jongdae, his coworkers, who have vague bird phobias. They don’t bother saying anything because. Giant bird, angry Kyungsoo. They spend their shifts taking turns ‘re-organizing’ the shelves in order to stay away.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, thinks that having another bookstore pet (they already have Sehun, the laziest cat on the planet) is a great idea, leaving the bird little treats and bits of his granola bars when Kyungsoo manages to get it to leave him alone.

One time, a little girl starts crying when Kyungsoo’s shooing the raven off of the cart of books he’s organizing, misunderstanding who Kyungsoo’s words are directed to when he says, “Stop fucking following me around, you little demonfucker!” which results in a Meeting with Junmyeon where he has to endure the Workplace Language Policy Talk.

Somehow, before the day is even through, Baekhyun and Kibum, the traitorous witches, have managed to hear about the raven and show up to laugh at Kyungsoo while he tries to calm a spooked old woman after the raven tries to rip a pendant off of her purse.

 

This is getting out of hand.

He’s just leaving the local potion maker, Yixing’s, shop, having gone to collect some ingredients as well as consult the potion master about the possibility of creating a potion or charm to ward away winged beasts, when he sees the raven flying away from where it looked to be on the hood of his car.

There’s a bottlecap left there, remarkably shiny in the afternoon light.

Kyungsoo picks it up, amused, tilting it to see how the light reflects off it. There’s a holographic spiral design across the top that catches the light in ways that the metal doesn’t, but the whole thing looks like it’s been polished, as if it were meticulously washed.

Kyungsoo looks up from the cap to see if the bird is still anywhere in sight, but it’s long gone.

He keeps finding little shiny tokens everywhere though, and they just start collecting on a jewelry plate he was once gifted that never really served a purpose before, little silver and gold knickknacks, coins, metal fastenings for clothing and purses, foil wrappers and chains now a small growing pile.

He guesses it’s kind of cute, even if it’s a little creepy. He can’t bring himself to throw any of it out, because the bird went through the trouble of finding it, picking it up, and transporting it to him. He was always awful with gifts. Getting them and giving them.

 _It’s creepy but not unbearable_ , Kyungsoo thinks.

Until he later realizes the raven has begun to build a nest on top of his house.

_Why does it need to be there? What is it going to do? Hasn’t it already been constantly surveilling him anyway? Is someone out to get him?_

Not a little struck by paranoia, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

 

 

Kyungsoo wandlessly sets down his glass, looking at Jonghyun unamused.

The other witch cocks an eyebrow at him, dragging the inside of his socked foot along the outside of Kyungsoo’s shin.

They’re sat around a tiny circular table carved with an intricate pentagram design on its face nestled in the corner of Kibum’s café, discussing Kyungsoo’s dilemma.

Well.

Kyungsoo is trying to discuss his dilemma. Jonghyun is just flirting and generally being unhelpful.

Jonghyun takes a sip of his tea, having left it to hover, stirring nectar in for gods know how long. “As always, the offer is on the table.”

He’s reminded of the reason why he never decided to join his local coven, and takes a brief moment to thank himself for the foresight. While he knows all of the local witches and has no real problems with anyone, (an overwhelming majority of the coven happens to be made up of his friends—it’s a small community) socializing is honestly draining.

“And as always, hyung, I’ll let you know if I ever feel the urge to stick my dick down your throat. Now, back to my actual problem.”

Jonghyun huffs a put-upon sigh, as if Kyungsoo has asked of him a great favor. “Go on.”

“Thank you.”

It’s not that he didn’t think that Jonghyun was unattractive; they’d had flings in the past, and they were great. Only, Kyungsoo has fluxy ace stuff that doesn’t exactly always jive with Jonghyun’s…needs, and on top of that, Jonghyun has a very protective familiar.

As if called upon, Jongin, Jonghyun’s familiar, makes his way to their little corner of the café, the little black cat weaving between table legs as well as human legs as he does so.

Kyungsoo begins, watching Jongin as the familiar stares him down. “Anyways, I have a problem with this familiar.”

Jongin is making his way onto Kyungsoo’s lap but stops, looking offended because he had decided to extend his favor to Kyungsoo today.

“Not you.”

Jongin hops up to curl up on Kyungsoo’s lap, appeased. Jonghyun reaches over to scratch behind Jongin’s ears.

“It’s this bird. It’s a raven, and it’s just? Following me around? I don’t know any enemies I’ve made, but if they’re sending their familiar after me, it must be serious.”

Jonghyun purses hir lips, deciding to be sincere now.

“Does it seem malicious?”

“Well.. it’s following me practically everywhere…”

“Has it left you any threatening messages? Bad omens? Carcasses?”

Kyungsoo frowns. “It keeps leaving me little scraps of metal and shiny little bits and bobs, no bodies or anything yet...”

Jonghyun laughs, and Jongin seems to, too, stretching up against Kyungsoo’s chest to knead gently up at the soft of his throat. It’s a gesture that shows how comfortable Jongin is with Kyungsoo today, and how the familiar knows Kyungsoo trusts him—Jongin may only be a small cat, but he has some pretty strong magic in those retractable claws of his.

“Babe, are you sure this isn’t  _your_ familiar?”

Kyungsoo gawks at hir, a little offended but mostly unbelieving, prompting Jonghyun to close his mouth with a finger to the bottom of his chin. “Why would it be  _my_ familiar. I don’t need one? I didn’t ask for one?”

Jonghyun’s eyes are on his lap, and for once, he has no suspicions that they’re on his crotch, but on Jongin.

“Sometimes, even if you don’t put the intention out for a familiar, they come find you anyways, because you need them, whether or not you know it yourself.”

Jongin purrs quietly on Kyungsoo’s lap in agreement.

 

They stay for far too long, Kibum griping at them to leave as he lifts their serviette off their table ‘because Kyungsoo’s yelling scared away all their other regulars’.

He was not  _yelling_ , Kyungsoo thinks to himself as he (gently) slams his car door shut, about to head to Jinki’s. That was another reason he wanted to talk to Jonghyun (Kibum would have also sufficed); they know where Jinki is.

How Jinki manages to keep any kind of clientele or his inventory selling or his business going at all when his home and shop are constantly on the move is beyond Kyungsoo’s understanding, but he supposes that just speaks to how renowned the witch is.

Although why Jinki doesn’t use his traveling home to appear at his client’s homes when he is summoned is also beyond Kyungsoo’s comprehension. He’s not looking for Jinki because Yixing doesn’t carry enough ingredients, or isn’t knowledgeable; Jinki is just particularly good with tricky spells and incredibly rare source material. That, and Kyungsoo is also probably dealing with some pretty niche dark magic in his... situation.

He’s pulling out onto the open road when he glances up through his rearview mirror and notices someone is in his backseat, nearly crashing his car in his surprise.

Kyungsoo hastily pulls off to the side of the road, whipping around and pointing his athame at the stranger, whose wings (wings?) flutter out behind them nervously at the sight of the dagger before they hold out a gold safety pin.

“For you.”

Kyungsoo reaches for it, glancing between the safety pin and the stranger, athame still out, trying to understand.

“You’re—the raven..?”

They nod, shifting uncomfortably, eyes still locked on the blade. “Your familiar. You can call me Taemin, though.”

Merlin’s saggy left tit.

 

The sun has set by the time they reach Jinki’s cottage, but anytime during nightfall are his general hours, anyway.

Because Kyungsoo doesn’t know the magical implications of murdering one’s own familiar, he leaves the familiar—Taemin—be for now, telling him to stay in the car while he goes inside.

Taemin of course, doesn’t listen, shifting back into his raven form to perch on Kyungsoo’s forearm as he’s leaving the car, which is just. Fantastic.

 _Fine_ , he thinks irritably. He’ll just ask Jinki how he can get rid of his familiar while his familiar is with him. Taemin is bound to figure out the news at some point, why not break it to him now.

The door to Jinki’s cottage creaks open after Kyungsoo knocks, low chimes sounding overhead as he passes through.

The witch is hanging on a strangely vertical hammock, a couple potions burbling off to the side as he scribbles runes into the air with his wand.

Upon Kyungsoo’s entry though, he pauses, flashing a bright smile his way.

“Kyungsoo! I’ve been waiting!”

“Hello hyung,” Kyungsoo greets politely, head ducking.

“And who is this? Oh, you have a request, don’t you?”

Kyungsoo always forgets why he always feels disoriented talking to Jinki, but then he remembers that Jinki’s psychic stuff makes it hard to follow him in conversation.

He scratches the back of his neck, holding the arm Taemin is perched on away from him. “Well, it’s kind of about that, actually…”

Taemin is looking at him inquisitively, but maintains his perch, and Jinki waits for him to continue.

“Do…do you happen to know of a way to get a familiar unbonded to you?” He thinks he sees Taemin flinch, but tries to keep it from bothering him.

“Oh...” For once, Jinki seems taken aback. “I, I have a spell, but it’s not particularly… pleasant for your familiar…”

Well then, no need to dawdle. “I’ll take it. Are there specific ingredients necessary to cast?”

Jinki seems concerned, but he’s got his wand scribbling notes from a spellbook, and he’s nodding. “Did you want me to get them for you? There’s essence of phoenix, wolfsbane extract, dragon tooth powder, and a couple things you’ll have to supply personally. Everything else, I expect you’d have already.”

Kyungsoo thinks for a moment. “Could you? I think I have some dragon tooth powder left, but it’s not much.”

Jinki nods, stepping off of his hammock to shuffle through some of the cupboards lining the walls, mumbling to himself.

While he’s rummaging through what looks to be an endless cabinet of vials, a small bottle of fiery red liquid floats in front of Kyungsoo.

“That’s the phoenix for you.”

Kyungsoo takes it, watching as Jinki pulls out more cupboards, a miscellany of vials and bottles floating around as he searches for the other ingredients Kyungsoo needs.

A couple things nearly drop as his focus shifts, and Kyungsoo has to send his magic rushing forth to keep them upright.

“Ah,” Jinki sighs, seeming to find what he was looking for, hefting a case out from underneath a hidden panel and seeming to procure a tin from thin air. “That’s where you were hiding.”

Turning back to Kyungsoo, the tiny bells at the bottom of his robes jingling as he does so, he hands him the rest of the ingredients. “There you are, one case of wolfsbane, and one canister of dragon tooth powder.”

The spell’s got to be pretty wicked if it calls for an entire case of wolfsbane. Kyungsoo’s about to ask how much, reaching for his coin pouch, before Jinki is waving his hands dismissively at him.

“Come on hyung, really-“

“None of that.” Jinki picks up the parchment that his wand had been busy with, rolling it up with another piece of parchment before neatly tying a ribbon around them both. “The one inside is a message. Just deliver that to Minseok and that will be payment enough, alright?”

Kyungsoo flushes, a little exasperated but always touched at Jinki’s generosity. He knows better than to push. “Yes, hyung.”

Looking away from the other witch for a moment, he notices that Taemin looks a lot smaller than he did previously.

Strange.

 

On the way home, he finds himself explaining, which he feels is ridiculous in and of itself.

“Look, it’s not because I’m an asshole or you did something wrong, I just, I like my alone time. I need space.”

Taemin stares at him blankly, not saying anything because, duh, bird form.

Kyungsoo continues anyway.

“I’m not even part of our local community’s fucking coven! And we all know each other!”

Raven Taemin continues staring.

“I don’t know why I’m even explaining myself, I didn’t ask for you, and I don’t have to justify my decision to you.  I didn’t approve of this bond.”

He stops talking after that, feeling a little conflicted, but choosing to ignore the feeling. He’s not wrong.

The sound of his tires crunching over gravel sounds as he pulls into his driveway, and there’s something oddly menacing about it, rather than the satisfying feeling Kyungsoo usually associates with a long day being over.

He sighs, pushing open the car door, and Taemin tears out of the car into the night.

 

There’s no sign of him in the morning either, and something about that ties Kyungsoo’s stomach up in knots. He doesn’t have too much time to dwell on it because he has to get to work, though he shows up hoping a little that the raven is there.

He isn’t.

Chanyeol notices too, (gently) elbowing Kyungsoo in the side when he gets behind the counter. “Hey, where’s your bird? I brought some trail mix today.”

“Taemin isn’t coming today.”

Chanyeol’s face falls a little, but. “Oh, cool, you named him!”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything, because he didn’t name Taemin, and he’s also not in the mood for Chanyeol’s peppy everything.

Chanyeol, however, does not get the memo. “Why not name him something more dramatic, like Shadow, or Nightrider or something?”

Junmyeon passes by, handing Kyungsoo the catalog for the next month. “Because Kyungsoo isn’t you, Chanyeol. Go see if Sehun needs to be fed or something.”

Chanyeol zips off, saluting Junmyeon as he does so.

Junmyeon crosses his arms over one another, leaning over the counter. “I was going to ask if you could close up for me, because Minho wanted to do something for dinner, but I can just ask Minseok; you don’t look so hot. What’s up?”

Kyungsoo purses his lips, not sure if he could really pull off lying to Junmyeon. He figures he can’t, so he gives him a version of the truth.

“My bird and I are fighting.”

Junmyeon’s lips quirk up at the side. “Yours? If I remember correctly, that was just a ‘demonfucker’ you were trying to get to ‘stop following you the fuck around’ already.”

Kyungsoo stares, having forgotten how Junmyeon remembers. Everything.

“Besides,” Junmyeon continues, tilting his chin up at Kyungsoo. “You would think a witch would be less weirded out by having a familiar.”

Kyungsoo gapes at him, looking around to see if anyone was around to hear.

“Hyung, what the Fuck?!”

Junmyeon is definitely nonmagic. And Kyungsoo has been so careful.

Minus Taemin following him to work.

Junmyeon just smirks at him. “Baekhyun tells me things.”

Kyungsoo has to roll his eyes, because, “Of fucking course.”

One of these days, Baekhyun’s giant mouth is going to get his ass in trouble, and Kyungsoo will only be there to enjoy his well-deserved pain and suffering.

“You know,” Junmyeon adds, conspirationally. “he thinks Sehun is  _my_ familiar.”

“You’re nonmagic,” Kyungsoo deadpans.

Junmyeon shrugs. “Baek said even nonmagic humans can have familiars. You don’t have to be magic to need a little help.”

Kyungsoo lets out a sigh, fingers busying themselves with reorganizing random shit laying around the front desk instead of responding or actually acknowledging what Junmyeon said because honestly, Fuck Baekhyun, but at the same time, he’s… not wrong.

 

Later when he gets home, he spots Taemin on his porch, nearly forgetting to park his car before he gets out of it.

Stepping closer, he sees that Taemin had already arranged the ingredients for the spell, even laying out the pentagram chart and setting one of his own feathers down on one of the points, waiting patiently by the parchment with the notes for the spell left open.

At the sight, he falls to his knees, catching himself on the table. He feels despicable.

Taemin just hops over to gently to perch on his wrist, not looking accusatory or angry at all. Kyungsoo thinks the furtive, sympathetic glances Taemin’s giving him are so much worse than if Taemin was rightly upset with him.

Anger, Kyungsoo can understand. Anger, Kyungsoo can deal with. But this? Sympathy for someone who wants nothing but to banish the one poor creature who’s working so hard to be of any kind of assistance to him? This felt like heartbreak, and guilt, and the pain Kyungsoo feels is caustic, tearing at his insides.

“What am I supposed to do with you..” he whispers, hot tears threatening to spill from the corners of his eyes. The spell Jinki gave him to separate their bond wouldn’t only end up sending Taemin out of the physical realm—his spirit would be utterly decimated, any remaining part of his consciousness left to exist in the agony of purgatory.

Taemin read all that in the warnings written into the spell and still did this.

Still helped him, put together the ingredients to help Kyungsoo utterly destroy him, body and soul.

Taemin thought Kyungsoo was prepared to end him, and he was willing to help him  _do that_ —he feels nauseous. How ready he was to wrong someone who had only had good intentions, only wished to do his duty to him.

Kyungsoo’s vision swims and then he’s sobbing, feeling anguish and guilt and torment at being completely undeserving of his familiar, at being so selfish and heartless that it’s come to this.

Taemin steps off Kyungsoo’s arm to transform, curling around Kyungsoo from behind to comfort him, cheek against his upper back, feeling it rise and fall as Kyungsoo heaves hiccupy breaths.

Kyungsoo isn’t one to cry, but the onslaught of shame wracks guilt-ridden sobs from his body. Taemin making every effort to comfort him just makes him feel infinitely more terrible and vile and evil and  _cruel_.

The guilt rises, thick and unyielding in his throat, threatening to choke him, and Kyungsoo just wants to give into it.

Taemin is murmuring, and Kyungsoo can barely hear him over his uncontrollable sobbing. “I thought—This was what you wanted... I’m—I’m your familiar; I’m supposed to help you, whatever you want to do, I want to help, even if what you want is for me to leave.”

Kyungsoo only cries harder.

 

In the morning, Kyungsoo wakes in his bed, limbs wrapped around Taemin, who’s already awake, and watching him very intently.

It’s very disorienting. It nearly makes Kyungsoo forget that he’s a terrible witch.

“Um. Good morning?”

Taemin lifts a hand to close his eyes for him, blowing a cooling breath over his eyelids.

Kyungsoo frowns a little, confused, and Taemin’s mouth quirks into a little smile. “Your eyes were puffy.”

It’s intimate and gentle, and Kyungsoo’s stomach lurches at the fact that he had intentions of dissolving this, destroying Taemin in the process.

He’s grumbling. “Stop being so nice to me, I don’t deserve it.”

“What’s deserving got to do with anything?”

Taemin’s question is so frank that it’s off-putting.

“I tried to kill you.”

“That was hot, like.  The first two times.”

Kyungsoo is knocking his forehead into Taemin’s shoulder, exasperated. He shouldn’t let him off like this, it shouldn’t be this easy, but Taemin won’t even let him feel guilty or wallow in being a terrible person, and Kyungsoo almost feels like laughing at how ridiculous he’s being.

Taemin is smiling as he nuzzles the side of Kyungsoo’s head, and it’s soft and gentle, and feels… really nice. It really shouldn’t be this easy, but Taemin—Taemin makes it easy.

Later that morning, shuffling through whatever remains of the chart Taemin had prepared (he had knocked the table over last night), he realizes he never passed Minseok the message he promised as payment to Jinki, and makes a mental note to give it to him later.

After reorganizing the ingredients for storage, he makes to tear up the parchment with the spell before setting the parchment on fire. The flames turn into a message that lingers in the air before dissipating:

_I knew you wouldn’t, Kyungsoo._

He has to swallow back the lump in his throat, touched but also a little frustrated; since when was he this emotional?

 

Taemin walks out then, holding out a toasted poppy seed bagel, and Kyungsoo takes it in one hand, pushing his index finger from his other hand into Taemin’s mouth, breaking the skin on one of his canines.

Taemin is frozen, eyes wide, unbelieving, afraid to hope what this implies—acceptance? An extension of trust? An offer to stay?

He doesn’t dare to think Kyungsoo is promising himself to him,  _bonding_ himself back to him.

But then Kyungsoo speaks, no-nonsense, and so sure. “If you’re going to feed me, I’m going to feed you. Go on.”

So Taemin does.

 

They end up fucking on the couch, Taemin’s face buried in the hollow of Kyungsoo’s throat like he’s buried between his legs, sweating and gasping and desperate.

It was a sexually charged feeding for sure, watching Taemin sucking sensually around his finger, but this, this is something else entirely.

Taemin’s digging his fingers into the small of Kyungsoo’s back, and every time he slams into Kyungsoo, the astral plane they’re on shifts. Kyungsoo can barely keep his eyes open, touched out, only able to vaguely perceive the shifting color and energy around them and the sharp prickling heat at the base of his spine. The bond makes him feel so powerful, but what Taemin’s doing to him makes him feel like he’s unraveling, Kyungsoo’s hands moving to grasp uselessly at Taemin’s back, at his wings, whatever he can hold onto, as he rides out the overwhelming pleasure.

Taemin fucks like he simultaneously  _needs_ Kyungsoo while he’s also marking him up as his, breathy whines at the junction of his neck and shoulder as he drags his teeth up along the column of his neck.

Through the exploding synapses and garble of pleasure that is Kyungsoo’s mind he realizes that Taemin isn’t just whining unintelligibly into his skin, but saying something.

“  _Mine_ , mine, mine, mine,  _mine_.”

It’s that realization that pushes Kyungsoo over the edge, vision going white as he spills hot and heavy between the two of them.

 

Kyungsoo’s just handed Minseok Jinki’s little roll of parchment paper when he spots Taemin staring Chanyeol down at the counter. This can’t be good.

By the time he’s by the counter, he only catches the tail end of the conversation:

“-just give me the treats, human, I know you have them.”

Kyungsoo is laughing nervously as he’s pushing Taemin out of the store by the elbows, calling behind him. “Haha, very funny, what a quote from your favorite sci-fi movie, Taem!”

Taemin looks irritated to be outside. “Why are we out here, what is a movie? I don’t have a sci-fi, much less a favorite one, why are you lying?”

“Taemin, Chanyeol is a nonmagic human. He doesn’t know what familiars are, and he doesn’t know that you can switch forms. You’re in human form right now,” Kyungsoo hisses under his breath.  

Taemin clicks his tongue. He should have known all that. “Could I get treats if I just. Changed now then?”

Kyungsoo is flabbergasted. Taemin’s reasoning skills, especially for a raven familiar, seem highly questionable. “How would you have gotten here if Chanyeol thinks you’re my pet?”

Taemin frowns. “Then, can you give me a treat?”

“Later? I don’t have anything with me right now.”

Taemin huffs. “Stop lying, you always have treats.”

Kyungsoo’s voice is getting higher, because, “What the fuck Taem, I really don-“

Taemin leans in to kiss him, a quick brush against his lips, and an extremely pleased smile crosses his lips before he’s turning back for the entrance of the store, mumbling happily to himself.

“You always have treats.”

Kyungsoo has to stay outside for a couple minutes to will the blush (and the embarrassment) away.

 

It’s been a couple months since Taemin’s been in Kyungsoo’s life, and some things have changed, but other things haven’t.

Baekhyun randomly dropping by the bookstore to gossip with Junmyeon and stare at Jongdae’s ass, for example, has not changed.

Junmyeon is busy, so Baekhyun has settled for Chanyeol, his next best immediate option, because Minseok is helping a guest find something, and Jongdae is in the kid’s section, picking stuff up from the floor.

Baekhyun really appreciates that the counter is optimally located for spotting Jongdae and his ass.

Chanyeol mistakenly thinks that Baekhyun is looking in that area because that is where Sehun is sleeping on a sleeping human Taemin.

“Yeah, I thought it was weird too. Sehun is so picky around everyone, especially strangers, but Taemin and him got along right away?”

Baekhyun is nodding, head tilting as Jongdae bends over another way to pick something else up. “Uhuh... You don’t say...”

“Hey, don’t you think it’s weird that Kyungsoo’s bird is named after his boyfriend?”

Baekhyun laughs, eyes scrunching.

“How do you know they’re not the same entity? Have you ever seen them in the same room?”

 

Chanyeol gasps.

 

Other things have changed though. Baekhyun is telling Kyungsoo about that particular story during a coven get-together, when he used to be able to count on Kyungsoo being at home or in the forest; anywhere he didn’t have to be around other witches.

He’s noticed other little things too of course.

How Kyungsoo saves an extra portion of whatever he’s eating for Taemin—even though the familiar doesn’t need to eat human food really—because in the moment he’s busy roughhousing with Jongin.

Or when some kid dared to tell Kyungsoo that he had a stupid pet when he’d been walking past with Taemin in raven form on his shoulder, and he immediately told them to ‘shut the fuck up, if they knew what was good for them’. Or when he hexed a whole gaggle of schoolchildren for trying to throw pebbles at Tae while he was waiting for Kyungsoo to finish shopping.

Well.

Maybe not much has changed, after all.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> although it's not exactly the same au, if you listen to taemin's pain in wicked ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WKPigijyjc ) is a little similar to taemin's feelings here--the song also happens to be in some ways a magic universe as well hehe. (The crazy magic sugar, the reference to a 'demon' lover who has power/ control over him)
> 
> however!! kyungsoo is a good witch now, he's let taemin in, he's growing, he's learning to be softer, connecting. he and taemin are good for each other, once kyungsoo figured out all he had to do was let taemin's charm work ♡
> 
> if you want to come yell at me or say hi or are just curious, i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/xingsoobot) and as always comments are always welcome! (needed) talk to me ♥
> 
> i also have a [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/xingsoobot)! play nice, i have a zero tolerance for bullshit policy but if you're just shy and don't wna say hi on twitter you can connect with me there !


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